Facebook users all over globe translate new versions for free

'Crowdsourcing' spurs criticism of the social site

Tomoko A. Hosaka, Associated Press

Published 4:00 am, Monday, April 21, 2008

Photo: Facebook

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In this frame grab image from Facebook Website, the Japanese version of Fracebook in work is shown Tuesday, April 15, 2008. Facebook is going global, but with a little help from its friends. In an aggressive push to expand beyond English, the social networking giant has begun rolling out international versions of its site. First came Spanish in early February, followed by German and then French in March. Nearly two dozen other languages are in the works, including Japanese, Turkish, Chinese, Portuguese, Swedish and Dutch. The twist is that all the translating is being done by Facebook users themselves _ for free. (AP Photo/Facebook, HO) less

In this frame grab image from Facebook Website, the Japanese version of Fracebook in work is shown Tuesday, April 15, 2008. Facebook is going global, but with a little help from its friends. In an aggressive ... more

Photo: Facebook

Facebook users all over globe translate new versions for free

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The 3-year-old social-networking phenomenon Facebook, worth more than $15 billion by many estimates, got a good deal on going global.

Its users around the world are translating Facebook's visible framework into nearly two dozen languages - for free - aiding the company's aggressive expansion to better serve the 60 percent of its 69 million users who live outside the United States.

The company says it's using the wisdom of crowds to produce versions of site guidelines - especially terms specific to Facebook - that are in tune with local cultures.

"We thought it'd be cool," said Javier Olivan, international manager at Facebook in Palo Alto. "Our goal would be to hopefully have ... everybody on the planet on Facebook."

Other social networks aren't "crowdsourcing" translation. The move is generating mounting criticism online, where some users question whether amateurs can produce good translations. Critics complain of sloppiness and skimping, even as Facebook says it is improving service in an innovative way.

The concept of collaborative translation is familiar in open-source programming. But Facebook's effort - as it builds sites in Japanese, Turkish, Chinese, Portuguese, Swedish and Dutch to join versions in Spanish, French and German that went online this year - is among the highest-profile attempts to have users do work traditionally handled by professionals.

The Spanish-language version has taken a particular beating for grammatical, spelling and usage problems.

Other critics say Facebook just wants free labor.

Valentin Macias, 29, a Californian who teaches English in Seoul, has volunteered to translate for the nonprofit Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia but said he won't do it for Facebook.

"(Wikipedia is) an altruistic, charitable, information-sharing, donation-supported cause," Macias said in a Facebook message. "Facebook is not. Therefore, people should not be tricked into donating their time and energy to a multimillion-dollar company so that the company can make millions more - at least not without some type of compensation."

Facebook points out that it has spent considerable resources building the translation program. Olivan said it's not soaking users but including them in the growth of the network - and possibly attracting new users.

He said that Facebook relishes being different from competitors and that users are helping the company produce versions in numerous languages as quickly as possible.

More than 100,000 users have installed Facebook's translation application. Nearly 10,000 helped translate the French, Spanish and German sites - the Spanish version in less than four weeks and the German one in two weeks.

The process involves translating a glossary of basic Facebook terms, translating text strings throughout the site, voting on each translation and then "testing and verification."

Some users, like Murat Odabasi of London, are spending hours each day translating Facebook. Responsible for 14,910 winning words and 1,938 winning phrases, Odabasi held the No. 2 spot among 391 translators on the Turkish leaderboard as of Wednesday.

Odabasi, 24, a software developer and native Turkish speaker, said the volunteer arrangement is good for users as well as Facebook.

"We come up with the words and phrases that will ... eventually become a part of the Turkish language itself," he said in an e-mail in English. "It feels good to be creating something that will in time be seen and used by millions of people."